Converting a successful film into a stage musical is not as easy as it sounds.
You have to appease those who idolise the film and want to see exactly the same formula in the flesh, while also engaging those who have never seen it and want to hear catchy songs sung by accomplished singers.
If this stage performance of The Wedding Singer is anything to go by, I think I'll give the Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore effort a miss.
A poor script is compounded by Jonathan Wilkes' rather immature performance as an 80s wedding singer dumped at the altar by one girlfriend and on a mission for a second, who happens to have a boyfriend in tow.
Wilkes plays Robbie Hart, a mullet-adorned, down on his luck singer, whose band is going nowhere. After the hopeless romantic meets waitress Julia (Natalie Casey), he is set on the road to falling in love yet again, but this time we are led to believe its the real thing.
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But Julia's Wall Street flick-rick of a boyfriend, Glen Guglia (Stephen Webb) stands in the way of true love, with his state-of-the-art mobile phone (complete with half ton battery) and power suits.
While you accept that musical scripts may suffer to make way for the obvious comedy one liner, schmaltzy ballads and intense dance routines, I've seen many the musical where this isn't the case. The Wedding Singer is a tad spineless. The two lead roles are not perfectly cast and the star performance was reserved for Camille Devine's Linda - Julia's cousin and fellow waitress, who had the belting voice and perfect persona for a quality musical role, like Mimi in Rent. She was wasted on this production.
On the plus side, a couple of the songs and dance routines hit the mark, particularly in the second half, and the audience seemed to be kept entertained. Maybe I just expect more from a musical.
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